Prince George Citizen February 23, 2019 by Prince George Citizen

Saturday, February 23, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

City seeking to borrow $32.2M Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Kyle Smith plays Maple Leaf Rag in the Popular Concert Group category during the 68th annual Prince George and District Music Festival on Friday morning at the Evangelical Free Church. The music festival continues through Monday and wraps up with the Festival Gala on March 2 at Vanier Hall.

Music fest showcases local talent Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca If you’ve heard the faint strains of singing and instruments this week, you aren’t imagining things. If you want to hear that music more clearly, come inside to hear the best in young and aspiring amateur musicians. If strings are your pleasure, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church is the place on Sunday and Monday, and if piano is your druthers the site is the Evangelical Free Church up to the end of today. The singing components are finished the competitive phase and the highest achievers will be called to perform at the final showcases that complete the event each year. The Prince George and District Music Festival has been showcasing local musicians, offering them competition to motivate creativity, since 1951. “The festival has seen many changes without losing its original mandate of supporting youth in their pursuit of musical excellence,” said organizing committee president Rose Loewen. “This community organization is northern B.C.’s premier music competition for young performers and amateurs. The festival is an important vehicle for performers to showcase their talents while gaining experience and obtaining valuable feedback from adjudicators.” Those adjudicators this year are a trio of highly experienced music professionals, one of whom is having a homecom-

ing of this experience. The choral and orchestral classes were presided over by Sheila Christie, an operatically trained dramatic soprano who performs regularly with Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Symphony, while maintaining a passion for teaching. The piano categories were led by Vancouver’s Barbara M. Siemens, an award-winning 30-year veteran of the genre. She has also written for The Piano Workbook Series, including five Sight Reading Drill Books, four Rhythm Drill Books, as well as graded assignment books, and she has recently released a children’s picture book called Carnival of the Animals. Finally, in the position of strings adjudicator is a well known and favourite name in the local music scene. Joel Stobbe may be based now in the Lower Mainland but he is an outspoken ambassador of Prince George and competed himself in this festival over his early years. Since then, he has received his Artistic Diploma of Music Performance from the Augsburg Conservatory of Music in Germany, regularly performing as soloist with chamber groups in Germany, France and Italy. Upon his return to Canada, Joel was a founding member of the Borealis String Quartet (2000-2005). He toured with the quartet, giving performances throughout Canada and the United States, with frequent broadcasts on radio and television. Stobbe was the principal cellist of

the Vancouver Island Symphony from 2006-2014 and artistic director of its Noteworthy Kids program from 20122014. During this time he continued to be active as both a soloist and chamber musician in regular recitals and concerts. Stobbe is currently a cello teacher at the Langley Community Music School where he holds a substantial class of private cello students and serves as coordinator for the school’s advanced programs. Stobbe and equally accomplished brother Karl were special guests of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra in April 2018. These three adjudicators will offer constructive judgment to the musicians competing in their respective categories. The cream of this year’s performers will earn trophies and other honours including a select few to represent the city at the provincials in May. A set of the best will be invited to perform live at the close of the festival without the pressure of competition. “You will want to attend our two great closing concerts at Vanier Hall on March 2,” said Loewen. “These concerts will feature memorable performances selected during the festival by our adjudicators. The Showcase Recital at 5:30 p.m. will feature our junior performers. Admission is free. The gala concert at 8 p.m. will include outstanding performances from all levels and disciplines.” Gala tickets are $20 adult, $10 seniors and students. They are available now at Books & Company or at the door.

The first step towards seeking taxpayers’ consent to borrow $32.2 million to pay for 11 capital projects will be taken during Monday night’s city council meeting. That’s when loan authorization bylaws will be up for three readings with final readings remaining subject to the outcome of alternative approval processes for each of the proposals. Those that draw 5,546 signatures in opposition by May 30 will either be nixed At $10.2 million, or taken to a fullblown referendum. work on the Prince At $10.2 million, work on the Prince George Aquatic George Aquatic Centre is the Centre is the bigbiggest project. gest project. Of that total, $8.6 million would go to replacing the building envelope including roof, stucco, reconstructing the parapet and adding mechanical equipment to dehumidify air. Slightly less than $1.4 million would go to replacing a list of building components including the three-metre and one-metre diving boards and tiling the wave pool flooring and walls. Another $140,000 would go to replacing the existing 20-year-old starting blocks and touch pads with those that satisfy provincial swim meet standards and $100,000 would go to repaving the parking lot. The work is to be carried out in advance of the 2022 B.C. Summer Games. Here’s a look at the other projects: • Critical street light and traffic signal replacement, $5 million: “Many of the city’s street lights and traffic signals were installed in the 1970s and are past the end of their service life,” the city says in the elector response form for the proposal. The work is to target about 600 of the most critical of the 2,500 street lights and traffic signals currently past their expected life. • Civic facility roof replacements, $4.7 million: Would go to replacing roofs on various civic facilities including SPCA, Search and Rescue, Sport Centre lower roof, 1310 Third Ave., City Yard mechanical bay, Kin 2, Kin 3, Two Rivers Gallery, Agriplex, Civic Centre, Senior’s Activity Centre, and CN Centre. • Equipment purchases, $2.9 million: $2 million would go to annual replacement of vehicles currently part of the city fleet and $671,00 would pay for replacing firefighters’ breathing apparatus. The remainder would be for two road foreman fleet trucks ($115,000), janitorial floor scrubbers ($99,750), and a bylaw compliance officer truck ($55,000). • Masich Place amenities refurbishment, $2.7 million: Also in preparation for the 2022 Games, the work would include upgraded field lighting, a replacement of the score clock and PA system, and new pathway lighting, electrical kiosks, fibre optic connection, irrigation, bleachers, and site furnishings to support visitor services at the stadium. It would follow on the $4.5 million worth of work, completed in 2018, that brought in a new synthetic turf infield, resurfaced track, and new track and field infrastructure, as well as upgrades to the grandstand with exterior painting, lighting, and accessible infrastructure. — see ‘THESE IMPROVEMENTS, page 3

Edward James Olmos coming to Northern FanCon Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff A name has been announced for this year’s Northern FanCon that sets a bright new star in the event’s all-time constellation of celebrity guests. Edward James Olmos is a generational talent, known as much for his rich acting abilities as for his box office cache. In the Latino-American world, he is an unparalleled icon. Around the world he is celebrated as one of the truly great names of the acting profession. In terms of fame, Olmos was a leading part of the pop-culture quake that was Miami Vice in the 1980s. He was also memorable back then as Gaff in the original Blade Runner movie opposite Harrison Ford. He held a key short-term role in The West Wing, the presidential

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series that dominated the airwaves in the 2000s. In terms of artistry, he directed and starred in classic cinematic storytelling triumph American Me, a film so effective at exposing the Mexican mob that Olmos’s life was threatened as a result. For his biopic performance in Stand And Deliver, Olmos was nominated for Best Actor at the 61st Academy Awards. He played another real-life character as the father in the celebrated biography film Selena opposite Jennifer Lopez. Another role earned rave reviews as a leading part of the ensemble cast of The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. He was also cast in such popular projects as The Green Hornet, Dexter, Marvel’s Agents of Shield, 12 Angry Men, Hollywood Confidential, his voice was in the all-star ensemble of The Road To

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OLMOS El Dorado and the Disney comedy Beverly Hills Chihuahua, recent audiences heard his voice in the animated hit Coco, and he was the central father-figure in the series American Family. Sci-fi fans the world over cele-

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brated his role as Commander Bill Adama in 73 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, work for which he earned six major industry acting award nominations (winning four of them). In addition to his Oscar nomination, he was nominated for three Golden Globes (winning twice for Miami Vice and The Burning Season), three Saturn Awards (winning for Battlestar Galactica), three Primetime Emmies (winning once for Miami Vice), he won an Independent Spirit Award (Stand And Deliver), nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, and he has so far been nominated for seven American Latino Media Arts Awards (winning four between Battlestar Galactica and Selena). Most recently he was bestowed the Mary Pickford Award in 2016 for outstanding lifetime achievement in the entertainment industry as selected by the International

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Press Academy. Since his celebrated breakthrough role in 1981’s Zoot Suit (first the stage play and then the film), his career has had consistent and sustained peaks. He has coupled that with incessant advocacy and charity work on a number of fronts, and has flirted with success in music as well. Northern FanCon always has celebrities and special performers come to the stage, but few could compare to the power and legacy of a true household name – Edward James Olmos. He will be available for autographs and photos, a public interview on the mainstage and three days of interactions with Prince George. Almos is one of a collection of VIP guests and pop-culture features coming to the Northern FanCon extravaganza from May 3-5 at CN Centre.

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